American Tradition Institute

The American Tradition Institute (ATI) is a 501(c)3 organization with headquarters in Washington, DC and in Denver, CO. According to its mission statement, they are "a public policy research and educational foundation ... founded in 2009 to help lead the national discussion about environmental issues, including air and water quality and regulation, responsible land use, natural resource management, energy development, property rights, and free-market principles of stewardship."

Colorado lawsuit
On April 4, 2011, ATI, the American Tradition Partnership and plaintiff Rod Lueck sued the State of Colorado and several officials over the constitutionality of the state’s Renewable Energy Standard mandate. The RES requires the state’s major utilities (mainly Xcel Energy) to obtain 30 percent of their power generation from renewable sources by the year 2020.

Michael Mann e-mails
In 2011 ATI issued a FOIA request to the University of Virginia for emails sent by climate scientist Michael Mann during his tenure at that university. On May 25, 2011, an agreement was reached in which UVA agreed to release 9000 documents to ATI within 90 days.

Directors and staff
Paul Chesser, Executive Director.

David W. Schnare, Director of the Environmental Law Center.

Christopher C. Horner, Senior Fellow.

Mark Newgent, Associate Research Fellow.

Board Memebers
Nick Spyros, Haymarket, VA

Dennis Champion, Palmdale, CA

John Reed, Denver, CO

Funding
ATI claims to accept no government grants, and that its funding is "primarily derived from a broad and growing base of grassroots contributors".